Love Ballad of the Tyrant King

Chapter 104: Jaseung, Comes Alive

"This is everything I’ve gathered so far. You could say it’s my entire life."

From Ban Yeo’s words, Lee Jaseung immediately understood.

This key was what opened the vault where Ban Yeo stored his treasures.

Lee Jaseung felt his heart surge.

The man in front of him was the second-in-command of the corrupt Murim Alliance.

What could he have accumulated over a lifetime?

Lee Jaseung concealed his excitement and responded coldly.

"Don't be ridiculous. Someone like you wouldn’t keep all your assets in one place. This is probably just the largest chunk of it."

Ban Yeo was startled, and also impressed. Lee Jaseung had guessed exactly right.

"You look like a bear but you have the brain of a fox huh."

"Not all people from the Unorthodox Faction are idiots."

Lee Jaseung did not bother to hide his sharpness. In a situation like this, Ban Yeo needed to fear him. That way, all his hatred and thirst for revenge would be aimed at Jang Wonso.

"You’re right. What’s hidden in that secret cave is probably half my wealth. The rest is either tied to the Murim Alliance or public, so even if you wanted it, you couldn’t get it."

"Even what's left is probably enough to make a comeback."

Ban Yeo didn’t respond to that.

‘It’s not about a comeback. It’s about revenge.’

The first target was the Alliance Leader, and the ones behind him. And of course, this shameless bastard from the Black Way Alliance who had no regard for promises would be next.

Lee Jaseung caught the killing intent in Ban Yeo’s eyes and let out a faint smirk.

‘Go ahead, feed that hatred. Let it grow. When it finally consumes you, I’ll show you just how foolish you were. Until then, I’ll let you live.’

Ban Yeo spoke with a resolute tone.

"I will not give you anything more. But even just this will be more than enough. It’ll be beyond your imagination."

Lee Jaseung examined him with a piercing gaze, trying to see if he was bluffing.

"My secret vault is at the foot of Dongchul Peak, behind the Murim Alliance. That key opens the entrance."

Ban Yeo gave him a set of numbers.

"These numbers disable the traps. With that passcode and the key, everything inside the vault is yours."

Lee Jaseung asked coldly.

"You know what will happen if you try anything funny, right?"

"I’ve seen what you’re capable of. If you managed to get in here despite the Virtuous Heroes guarding the place, there’s nowhere in the world I could hide."

"Fine. I’ll trust you."

"By tomorrow morning, I’ll be found dead in this place."

Ban Yeo was saying he’d fake his death himself.

"You handle everything else."

Lee Jaseung turned away with a cold remark. Behind him, Ban Yeo asked.

"Can I trust you? Is there a guarantee that you won’t betray me again?"

Without turning back, Lee Jaseung raised the key in his hand and answered.

"If someone offers more than this, I might change my mind again."

Ban Yeo sighed in relief.

"That won’t happen."

No one in the world could offer that much. And only now, at this moment, did Ban Yeo realize something.

"You really are..."

What should he call the man in front of him? Unique? Impressive? Terrifying? He looked like a brute but was even sharper than he seemed.

Ban Yeo had met all kinds of people in his long life. Many were famous enough to be known just by name.

He could define those people.

Impressive. Intelligent. Magnificent. Two-faced.

But no word came to mind for Lee Jaseung. Something was off. Maybe someday he’d be able to properly define this moment and the Black Way Alliance Leader in front of him.

But not today. Right now, he felt completely helpless. Before a man so much younger than himself at that.

At last, Lee Jaseung turned to him and grinned.

"I hope you live a long life."

Right after Lee Jaseung left, Ban Yeo stepped out of the room. The Virtuous Heroes standing guard beside the door asked him,

"Are you heading out?"

There were a dozen martial masters standing in the hallway like nothing had happened.

Lee Jaseung had walked out through this very door, yet vanished without a trace.

There was no point blaming the Virtuous Heroes guarding the place.

‘Black Way Alliance Leader! You are far more dangerous than I imagined!’

But now was not the time to aim arrows at him.

Ban Yeo’s eyes burned with fury.

The one at the end of his drawn bow was Jang Wonso.

* * *

Lee Jaseung was climbing a mountain alone.

He was on his way to Ban Yeo’s secret vault, which wasn’t far from the Murim Alliance. It was likely chosen so that Ban Yeo could access it quickly if needed.

The entrance to the vault was at the foot of the mountain, in a cleverly concealed location.

It was placed between two large rocks. Anyone passing through would only be thinking about how to leap across the gap, never noticing the hidden entrance between them.

Lee Jaseung pushed a specific spot, and the wall silently rotated open.

He stepped into a narrow passage.

Thud.

As the wall closed behind him, darkness engulfed him. Not a single ray of light entered, but Lee Jaseung could still see perfectly through the dark.

Under normal circumstances, he would’ve had Dan Woobin handle this. He managed the internal affairs of the Black Way Alliance.

But there was still a chance Ban Yeo had set a trap.

Lee Jaseung stayed alert as he walked deeper in.

Eventually, the passage came to a dead end. He reached forward and found the exact spot Ban Yeo had described.

If he touched the wrong place, it would immediately trigger a mechanism.

He considered deliberately triggering it to see what kind of trap Ban Yeo had prepared, but decided against it. Ban Yeo probably placed something truly deadly to protect his treasures.

A door opened, leading to a small room. The walls were studded with luminous pearls, making the room bright.

In the center wall was the mechanism to open the next door.

Lee Jaseung readied his defensive Qi just in case.

He entered the numbers Ban Yeo had given him and forcefully turned the key in the lock. He half-expected a rain of hidden weapons to fall, but luckily, no trap was triggered.

With a loud metallic clunk, the door opened. Lee Jaseung stepped inside.

It was a storage-style vault with several rooms.

At the sight of the first room, Lee Jaseung’s eyes widened.

"This is insanel…!"

The first thing he saw was an entire wall stacked with bricks of gold. Mountains of gold. An enormous amount.

Lee Jaseung had never seen so much gold in his life. No, no one had.

He was genuinely impressed by Ban Yeo. For him to give this up, his attachment to life must have been powerful. Or he was that confident he’d reclaim it later.

One hundred million silver coins? Two hundred million? Three?

He tried, but it was impossible to estimate. Only Dan Woobin might be able to roughly calculate it.

A smile spread across Lee Jaseung’s face. With this kind of money, the Black Way Alliance could endure a long war even at full force.

After all, what determined the outcome of war was the number of heads, and how strong those heads were.

Money was essential to secure both. And the more hidden and untraceable that money is, the better.

The Black Way Alliance, the Murim Alliance, and the Asura Demon Sect.

They all knew each other’s inner workings.

They knew how many soldiers each faction had, where they were stationed, what level of strength they held. They even understood each other’s financial flows.

But this money was off the books. It was the kind of money that could strike where the enemy least expected. Lee Jaseung planned to use it to steadily build strength.

His only worry was the latent threat of the Demonic Cult. The Orthodox Faction could be brought down easily if one secured the right justification.

But the Demonic Cult were different.

If no reasoning worked, there might come a day when they’d have to wipe out every last Demonic Human from the martial world.

The Demonic Cult had existed for over a thousand years. Even though they were now split between the Heavenly Demon Sect and the Asura Demon Sect, there were still tens of thousands of Demonic warriors. Fighting them would require endless power.

And the gold wasn’t all.

That mountain of treasure was just the first room.

Lee Jaseung entered the second room. This room held weapons.

The walls and display racks were covered with all kinds of martial arms. He examined each one.

There were many exceptional swords. Each worth tens of thousands of silver coins, with some likely valued at hundreds of thousands.

There were dozens of such weapons. Likely bribes received over the years.

Some daggers were there too, but none were on par with Asura or Dream Phantom, the blades Lee Jaseung carried.

Seeing the swords reminded him of Baek Seolyoung, but he didn’t choose one for her.

For a warrior, a sword must come through fate. Even if he wanted to buy her one, it would be best if she chose it herself.

At any rate, these weapons could be sold in times of need or distributed to the Captains.

Lee Jaseung moved on to the next room.

Upon entering, he muttered instinctively.

"Damn, the bastard really milked it dry."

Display cabinets lined the walls. The small boxes on them were filled with luminous pearls.

Depending on their grade, luminous pearls could be worth tens to hundreds of thousands of silver coins. So the total value here was immense.

There were also poison-repelling beads nearby. These were rarer and more precious than luminous pearls.

Only top-ranking members of the Black Way Alliance used high-grade poison-repelling beads. The rest used lesser ones. These would drastically improve the Alliance’s strength.

Lee Jaseung proceeded to the next room.

It was filled with porcelain, paintings, and various collectibles. He wasn’t knowledgeable about such things, so he didn’t know their value.

But given the nature of this vault, it was unlikely anything here was fake. Which meant this too could be worth a fortune.

Ban Yeo had said this was only half his wealth. Meaning there was another half like this out there.

If the second-in-command had this much, how much had the Alliance Leader stolen?

"Those crazy bastards!"

Lee Jaseung let out a laugh.

He would take Ban Yeo’s remaining half. And the Alliance Leader’s too. Someday, he’d have it all.

He stepped into the next room.

The atmosphere was completely different here. There was only a single table inside. And when Lee Jaseung saw what was on it, his eyes grew wider than ever.